February 26, 2007
NYCC: ICV2 Graphics Novel Conference Wrap-up
Posted by Devin
This year’s second annual conference on Graphic novels was more focused on the printed word as the talk on anime licensing was shelved. I’ll go through each panel individually, discussing key stats:
ICv2 White Paper–Graphic Novels: Growth and Change
Quite a few bloggers, Mangablog, and Comics212 for stats. I’m going to pick at a couple of them and calculate some numbers based on what was presented:
Total US sales were $330 mil for 2006, with between $170 and $220 mil coming from manga. So now we can say 51% and 66% of total graphic novel sales were manga. In 2005, ICV2 presented a figure of $145 million generated in 2005 manga sales from a market size of $295 mil, a percentage of 49% of the total market. The market for manga has grown between 14% and 34% in one year. Wow, is that big: manga is out pacing the growth of the the rest of graphic novels by 2 to 1. Diamond tracks 10,500+ graphic novel titles, 46% manga/54% non manga. Manga, not having a significant history of more than 5 years, had an upshot of 120 releases (1088 vs. 1208), or almost 10% number releases growth. This confirms growth isn’t just more titles, but the selling of more copies. Just so you know its not only the Naruto effect. What I’d love to measure is the long tail number, but I don’t think we have enough stats yet.
Non-Fiction — The Real World of Graphic Storytelling
I do have to admit for being out of the loop on this one: I was surprised to hear how positive growth is and will be for this part of the graphic novel business. Also, a majority of non-fiction books in Japanese are manga-style. On the panel from this view: Glenn Kardy, Pres/CEO of Japanime Co. has been publishing in the international market for a number of years including the releasing of hit series, How to Draw Manga. His translated/localized series are translated to up to 12 languages. I do have to wonder if there are other licensing opportunities available for manga non-fiction work to be translated and released here.
Manga Ratings, Redactions, and Freedom of Speech
Tokyopop’s new rating scale for 2007 was passed out the audience members. Panelists and audience member supported their new approach to rating manga, even if it did mean becoming objective to the manga’s various content. When a librarian questioned the panel about a universal-friendly rating scale for all manga and how most manga falls into the T/Teen category, the panelists replied with no-comment or their self-policing rating systems were in reply to concerned parents. As long as self-policing policies like ratings and shrink-wrapping of mature publications take place, the industry shouldn’t have too many freedom of speech problems that have plagued comic books in the past. Is there a chance that someone who sees this as ‘universal cartoon art’ that hasn’t seen the umpteenth NYT article that comics aren’t for kids anymore? Sure–
Buyers Panel — Graphic Novels, the Next Three Years
More Yaoi. More all-ages books. There were a couple of differencing opinions from the panel on what works and what doesn’t. I think one consensus was for more single volume or short-series sets. A manga series that runs 5, 10 or 15+ books is a lot of $$ for someone to sink into a series at an average cost of $10 a book. One quoted book was Tokyopop’s single volume Kingdom of Hearts manga supported by $5.8 mil in video game sales. More pop-star licensed manga will drive traditional non-manga buyers into the market.
Filed To: Distribution / Retail / Licensing / Adv/Marketing / General
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February 25, 2007
Madeline at Ad Astra
Posted by Madeline
I will be at Ad Astra, Toronto’s science-fiction convention, next weekend to take part in a panel discussion on depictions of otaku within Japanese media. I hope to see you there!
Filed To: Kokoro Media
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February 21, 2007
Event Preview: ICV2 Graphics Novel Conference 2007 at NYCC
Posted by Devin
I’ll be attending tomorrow’s IVC2 second annual Graphics Novel Conference @ NYCC this year.
Last year’s graphic novel conference was a huge success and a benchmark for future industry events to come. Highlights to last year’s event include discussions on the ripple effect of Musicland shutting down, the effects of editing, censorship, and ratings in manga, and the cost of licensing a content series. One of the quotes that is long remembered from last year’s convention is from Al Kahn, CEO of 4Kids:
I think manga is a problem because we’re in a culture that is not a reading culture. Kid’s today don’t read, they read less today. In every survey, we find that they’re watching more television, they’re on the Internet more, and that content, although being king, is very disposable. Because the way content gets put out now, it gets put out free. We’re streaming most of our shows. The reason why we’re streaming them is we want kids to watch them as much as they can, and get vested in the concept and go out and buy products. The products ain’t free. The content is going to be free. And manga in my mind is trying to put a square peg in a round hole in the U.S. It will never be a big deal here, for the kids that are in the computer or the Internet generation, because they’re not going to read. They haven’t read, and they’re not going to start now.
A year later, and even I can firmly say that manga is here to stay and its potential is untapped as variety has diversified. Let’s take a quick look at tomorrow’s panels:
ICv2 White Paper–Graphic Novels: Growth and Change
ICv2 will present the results of its annual graphic novel industry survey, along with special conference-only info that will not be published in its magazines or on the Web.
Expect from new statistics from Milton Gripp of IVC2 that will run higher than the published Nielsen BookScan results that were published a few days ago (more on that in a later post)
Non-Fiction — The Real World of Graphic Storytelling
The memoir, historical storytelling, and education are among the fastest growing areas of the graphic novel (and we use the term loosely) category in North America. Is the N.A. market going to look more like Japan’s, where manga is a favored form for non-fiction as well as fiction?
I don’t think that non-fiction graphic novels are here yet as a primary vehicle for storytelling. To me, this is a surprise panel topic.
Manga Ratings, Redactions, and Freedom of Speech
Japanese culture is very different than American when it comes to controlling access to adult content, and publishers have taken a wide range of approaches when deciding how to deal with those cultural differences in their American editions. Retailers, libraries, and publishers all have their concerns.
Hot button panel. Tokyopop just published their new rating scale for 2007, and we’re just waiting for some conservative movement to discover explicit manga. Its at Wal-mart, yet no one has noticed–
Buyers Panel — Graphic Novels, the Next Three Years
A panel of key graphic novel buyers from multiple channels will discuss what’s selling and why, how the market’s changing, and what kinds of products will grow the market in the next three years.
Today’s word of the day: diversification. I’ve love to ask the panel what they think of limiting distribution for certain graphic novels to one or more channels (like Tokyopop has some with some of their recent graphic novel releases)
Filed To: Distribution / Retail / Licensing / Adv/Marketing / General
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February 8, 2007
Buzzmanga
Posted by Madeline
My colleague Emru Townsend at Frames Per Second Magazine alerted me to Buzzmanga, a service from “content development” firm Machiokoshi, that allows Western advertisers to use manga as their medium. A snippet:
We have done away with many of the features that are seen in your common standard advertisement . Instead it our intention to make people take notice and remember the advertisement through the Art of Japanese Manga.
In a sense, this is merely very heavy product placement. It hearkens back to the era of the original radio “soap opera,” when the plays were sponsored by soap companies and made no bones about their corporate agenda and allegiances. Now the strategy has moved to manga format. Advertisers can request a whole story built around their product. (I imagine that hentai comics will soon become ads for lubricant, condoms, toys, lingerie, and whatever else advertisers can dream up.) The idea is that readers will slowly absorb the brand name into their consciousness after reading about it for page after page.
My question is, how these manga will be distributed? Will they wind up as the equivalent of the folded pamphlets from religious organisations that one occasionally finds at pay phones and subway stops? Will they appear in installments at the end of every copy of Shounen Jump? Obviously the intent is to create “buzz” around the product (hence the name), but can an open advertisement do this? Or should we simply respect the effort, because it makes an honest attempt to garner attention through pure advertising, rather than sly, subliminal product placement?
Filed To: Over in Asia / Retail / Adv/Marketing
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